Following hot on the heels of BB Tubes, Waves’ new tube channel strip promises to bring the Magma sound to a suite of saturation, EQ, and dynamic control, but does it deliver? We put it to our panel of Experts.
In Summary
Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip brings valve-infused console-style channel control in one place. An input stage with conditioning and drive is coupled with a simple three-band EQ and one-knob dynamic processing. An output fader with calibratable output meter rounds off the package.
Going Deeper
What Is A Channel Strip?
A channel strip is a bang-for-buck software incarnation of the hardware console input channel. While many reading this will have rolled up their sleeves (or are still rolling them up) to grab-and-go with their hardware board’s built-in utility processing, an audio plugin strip’s appeal has bedded in with countless ITB mix engineers who love the same convenience and homogeneity in one place.
The consoles on which these software tools are based take in a broad range of audio designs and flavours. The oft-sighted classic American and British class A homages, as well as super-clean and not-so-super-clean control-room fillers have re-introduced a whole new generation to the joys of these classic designs. Such is their appeal, that it’s not unheard of to see ITB mixes shaped with channel strip audio plugins hitting channels 1 and 2 on the real thing! Certainly the appeal and convenience of quality dynamics and EQ in the same place is hard to beat.
Why Use An Audio Plugin Channel?
When it comes to processing, the many different options available to the engineer seems to grow by the minute. When mixing, very few reading this will peruse the very long list of redundant demos and purchases in their plugin folder, with many instead leaning on a small cohort of known tools that are concise and sonically appropriate. When reducing clutter, and zeroing-in on the tasks in hand, the channel strip is the logical conclusion.
Some would argue that essentially having one tool at hand makes the choices within the strip arbitrary by default; those who have mixed or do mix on a console might agree to differ. Mixing straight away by removing procrastination is exactly what the strip excels at. Certainly those working within one can be well under way while the audio plugin collector is still squinting blankly at too many options. Of course, strips can be mixed and matched for colour where appropriate, and other audio plugins are invaluable for when a specialism is required.
Anatomy Of Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip
As developers of some of the world’s best known audio plugin channels, Waves are no strangers to the soft-strip, with their 4k offerings perhaps being the best known. Taking a decidedly stripped-back vintage approach is their new Magma Tube Channel Strip. Bringing the look and sound of other Magma series processors, this valve-flavoured channel adds character to the channel strip form-factor.
Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip lands with the Magma series’ family look, with an attractive gloss-black, white, and red paint job accentuating a look that is very ‘mid-twentieth century’ indeed. Black bakelite controls and a VU needle that can almost be heard to go “TICK” when it hits the end-stop completes a pleasing aesthetic that raises the user’s expectation of the sound on offer.
Input Section
Polarity, two position HPF, and Drive with tri-colour lamp.
Three-Band EQ Section
Wide High and Low shelves with +/- 14dB of gain.
Mid sweepable from 100 Hz to 5 kHz.
Dynamics
One-knob expansion with Gate option.
One-knob compression with Smash option.
Output Section
Output VU meter (Adjustment screw allows the user to line up 0dBVU with the DAW reference level of their choice).
Output fader range +12dB to -144dB (Infinity).
Expert Panel - Hit or Miss?
In every Expert review we ask three of our team of contributors to give their first impressions of the product. We ask them to give the product a hit or miss, based on factors such as originality, innovation, usefulness, quality and value for money. For each hit the product gets an Expert Award. One hit and it gets our bronze award, two hits gets silver and for a hit from all three of the panel it gets a coveted gold award. Of course if there’s three misses, there’s no award.
Ashea On Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip
The Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip sounds exactly how it looks; smooth, glossy, and exciting.
The controls are very straightforward but still allow for a decent amount of tweaking.
Simply turning up the drive adds instant tube warmth to any vocal. I especially like how it sounds placed on the master bus with a slight boost of the highs and mids, some compression and drive, it gives a really nice finishing sheen.
For the lower end of things, I can inject some serious oomph into my drum bus just by adding drive and dialling up the one-knob compressor with the smash switch on. The stripped-back layout means we don't get any adjustable compression settings, but I think that's part of the appeal, it's perfect for a fast but effective workflow.
Considering the Magma's simplicity, how much use you can get out of it, and its overall luscious sound and look, I'd say it's a worthwhile investment for any producer or mixer, particularly if you're into Pop or R&B. HIT!
Luke Goddard On Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip
For me, anything that consolidates a decent set of processing tools into one place is going to get my attention. Working entirely ITB, my daily driver EQ and dynamic processing have for the last ten years come courtesy of a channel strip audio plugin, and in my world they make a lot of sense. I’m lucky enough to get to use a very wide range of tools that provide all of a strip’s necessary ingredients, but with each experiment I always come back to the thing that has them all in one place. Does their concise feature-set restrict my sound? I don’t think so, as the most likely thing to let a tool down is the operator! Certainly, the strip’s back-to-basics functions rarely leave me wanting for more, and for micro-surgery I still have a bulging plugin folder to consult when needed.
Having used the Magma BB Tubes saturation audio plugin I was impressed by its rendition of the valve sound compared both with other software recreations and with the growl from a previously owned valve outboard EQ. With this in mind I was interested to hear what the Magma signature would bring to a channel strip, and I’m pleased to say that it worked well.
The Drive section has an ‘amalgamated’ flavour of distortion that sees the extra harmonic content woven nicely into the source where others can sound like they’re ‘stuck-on’. I found the EQ’s shelves to be very musical thanks to their super-gentle curves, and the single mid band’s width to be well chosen and its range far-reaching. The Dynamic section also lends the one-knob immediacy that gives far more in time saved than it takes in features lost, with the Gate and Smash switches providing a welcome change of gear.
The calibrated output meter for the engineer’s working level of choice is also a nice feature that shores up the Magma channel’s pro credentials. If you’re looking for a compact character channel, Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip should be on your list to try. HIT.
William Wittman On Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip
The Waves Magma Channel Strip, is, as the name states, a channel strip plug-in based on Waves’ excellent Magma Tubes saturation algorithm.
In full disclosure, I was already a fan of Waves’ Magma BB Tubes plug-in. Almost as soon as I tried the demo I bought it and I use it quite a bit, all over my mixes and especially on the stereo bus. So I came into this demo with high hopes and expectations.
Magma saturation indeed, as the name implies, can add some nice spongy distortion to a sound. But set at levels where the distortion isn’t obviously perceived as distortion, I have found it to just be capable of adding both some subtle excitement to signals but also, somewhat surprisingly, a feeling of increased depth and solidity. An enhanced 3D quality, if you will. It’s subtle but it’s discernible and, as such, extremely useful.
What’s All This Then?
Getting back to the new Channel Strip iteration, What Waves has given us is that nice saturation in the front of the signal chain, where one might expect preamp or input gain on a channel strip, followed by a simple 3 band Equaliser with fixed high and low shelves and a variable mid frequency bell (variable from 100Hz through to 5kHz). Think of it as the sort of EQ one was likely encounter on an early all Valve/tube desk; simple but effective.
Following that is a Dynamics section (something frankly not likely to have been present on those desks) with both an expander/gate and a one knob compressor plus a “Smash” button. There’s also phase/polarity reverse and a VU meter for output level with an adjustable sensitivity control.
How’s It Sound Then?
To get to the point, this thing sounds really good. Putting it on any channel it’s easy to very quickly get something going that works. Part of the point of very simple settings like this is that most of the time (one might argue even all of the time) it’s all you need. I didn’t even want to know where the top or bottom were boosting. I just twirled the knob until it sounded bright enough or full enough and that’s that.
For those instances where you really do feel you need something more specific, or ‘surgical’, then this isn’t the plug-in for that. But that’s not what it purports to be. In practice, it’s a very musical and satisfying sound straight away with very little fiddling required. And that is, to me, clearly a plus. Anything that gets you moving forward quickly, and your head back into balancing (the real job of mixing,) is a win.
What’s It Good At?
I honestly couldn’t find anything this didn’t sound good on. But perhaps its strongest performance was on submixes or the stereo bus. What I want on a drum or guitars subgroup isn’t going to be something clinical. I want that subgroup processing to glue its elements together, tilt the tonal balance as needed, and perhaps add a bit of excitement and poke to the group. Magma Channel Strip excelled at those things.
On the stereo bus it also performed admirably. Will it replace my favourite stereo compressors and a more versatile or variable EQ? Probably not in most cases (and I’m already using Magma BB Tubes on the stereo bus in most mixes), but there are certainly some mixes where it will. It definitely has a character that it adds and that character is a very useful and appealing one.
What’s Not To Like?
So my few niggles and suggestions:
I would have liked to have seen a Mix knob for the compressor to allow for parallel type uses. On a channel strip intended for general use this seems like something most people are used to these days. In fact, my go-to channel strip is often Waves’ own Scheps Omni Channel which is fantastic.
I didn’t expect the Magma Channel Strip to be aiming to be the same sort of ‘does everything in one package’ thing the Scheps does but the lack of compressor mix did jump out at me as something they could have added without losing the ‘vintage’ flavour of the thing.
And similarly, one absolutely brilliant feature of the Scheps is that it includes an Insert slot, where one can add any other Waves plug-in into the channel strip chain. Again, even vintage valve desks had a patch bay where one could insert a delay, or another compressor or whatever. Having that inside Magma Channel Strip would have been nice.
I should also add that the input section has a High Pass Filter with three settings options; Off, 60Hz and 110Hz. I would have loved a lower frequency option, perhaps 25Hz-ish, as I rarely want to lose that much low end from anything other than perhaps a triangle.
Lastly, I would have liked if the VU meter could be switched to read gain reduction for the compressor. I don’t like looking at estimate LEDs. (and is this an SSL or a ‘vintage’ valve desk?) But these are admittedly nitpicks. On the whole, this thing does what it implies on its tin and does it well. I will definitely find myself using Magma Channel Strip in my everyday work and will be happy to have it. HIT.
With three Hits Waves Magma Tube Channel Strip gets an Expert Gold Award.
A Word About This Article
As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.